Day of Doom
by Aafubbaia
Summary: Takes place right after Trust No One. Amy and Dan are trying to stop the Vespers' evil plan (for those of you who read TNO, you know what it is) before it's too late. My version of what I think will happen in Day of Doom
1. Chapter 1

Atticus's head was reeling from what he had just discovered on the Palimpsest. He knew that no matter how much time passed, he would never get used to the fact that the world was going to end. There seemed to be no way to stop the inevitable.

_Not only were the Vespers cunning and cruel, but they also were more powerful than the Cahills could ever be. On top of that, they still had the hostages, minus Alistair and Phoenix_, Atticus thought with a pang.

There was so much more knowledge in the world to gain, so many places he hadn't seen, yet he was going to die at the young age of twelve.

"Stop it," he told himself. "So many innocent people are going to die all because of me and Jake and Dan and Amy, so don't be selfish."

Horrific images filled his head, scenes of earthquakes and destroyed buildings, broken bridges and motionless bodies. Atticus shuddered in his chair and sipped his mild coffee. Beside him, Jake had out his phone and was attempting to contact Amy, who had run off in a state of panic.

A text from Dan allayed their concerns somewhat, letting the two brothers know that Amy was with him. Atticus sighed. The world was still at stake and he had helped commit some huge crimes, but at least one problem was solved.

* * *

Amy desperately wished that she could somehow silence her mind, which was currently in turmoil over Atticus's disturbing discovery. Dan seemed to understand her disquiet and put an arm around her shoulder, though normally he wouldn't do anything like that.

To Amy, Dan's arm felt stronger, and a feeling of dread built up inside her. "Oh no," she said. "You did not just—"

"Yes, I did," Dan said in a quiet tone. "I drank the serum."

Amy couldn't believe that Dan would take such a risk. The serum was what had caused the rift between the Cahill branches and was the reason for Gideon Cahill's death. She felt like she was on the verge of another breakdown, but a call from Ian broke the charged silence between them.

"Any news?" he asked in his usual suave tone.

Dan was about to tell Ian, but Amy spoke first. "All of the items we were stealing for Vesper One are the parts for Archimedes's doomsday machine, so expect to die soon. Also, Dan just drank the serum. You?"

"Well, nothing quite as interesting," he replied, his voice showing no signs of shock. "All of the computers were somehow wiped out by Sinead, so Evan—" Ian said the name with distaste "—is attempting to get them working again. Also, please ask your cat to relent."

Dan was pleased to hear desperation in Ian's reply. "Don't think Saladin will ever stop attacking you. If you lay a finger on him..."

"Dan, calm down," Amy told him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Ian, we'll see you back in Attleboro."

"Wait!" Dan interjected. "Any declarations of love you want to make before we all die?"

Amy blushed a deep red, and Ian said, "Not in particular. You, Daniel?"

It was Dan's turn to look embarrassed, but then his expression was one of mild anger. "When I get back home, I'm going to use my ninja skills on you, and don't think it won't hurt now."

"Dan," Amy said in a warning tone. "Bye, Ian."

She ended the call. Ian's reminder of Sinead's betrayal caused a fresh wave of anger and hurt inside. _I still can't believe I trusted her_, Amy thought. _If I had recognized the signs earlier..._

She stopped her train of thought, not wanting to feel any guiltier.

* * *

**A/N: So what do you think? It's my first FanFiction, so it might not be that great, but please let me know what you thought of it. I'll try to post chapters as often as I can. BTW, this FF takes place right after TNO (which was amazing, other than any Evan parts). I'm trying to stay accurate to the authors' writing styles and plot.  
~Aafubbaia**


	2. Chapter 2

**I can't believe how much work it is just to write one chapter. Now I really appreciate how hard you FanFic authors out there work. Thank you SO MUCH for all of you who reviewed or favorited or followed this fic. I'm going to sound really cliche here, but they made my heart swell with joy. Literally.**

**Anyway, here's the 2nd chapter. It's way longer than the first one. Enjoy!**

* * *

~Natalie~

Natalie felt like there was no hope, the same feeling she had when she couldn't find the perfect dress. Only this was much, much worse. She and the other hostages had been trapped for weeks now, and their health (and possibly their sanity) was going nowhere but down. Of all her fellow prisoners, Nellie looked the worst, with a thin, pale face and a bullet wound.

Natalie shuddered as she remembered pulling out the bullet with tweezers, not something she would have ever imagined doing before her current desperate circumstances. Suddenly, she spun around, finding that a Vesper had snuck into their desolate quarters undetected.

"What do you want?" Nellie managed to sound quite menacing despite her obvious state of weakness.

"Relax," said the Vesper in a tone that put no one at ease. "Thanks to Amy and Dan, the world is going to end soon, so we'll just let you enjoy the apocalypse from your nice rooms down here."

Natalie wanted to break out in tears, and she saw most of the other hostages struggling with the same reaction. All except for Reagan, who suddenly ran up and tackled the Vesper. Nellie quickly went up to help her, and within a minute they had him subdued. Unfortunately, they had no rope to tie the Vesper up with, but Reagan solved that problem by sitting on him.

He continued to struggle for a minute, but then seemed resigned to his fate. Natalie marched defiantly to the dumbwaiter and forced it open, then yelled up the shaft. "We have one of your men, and he won't be getting free until you let us go."

Her British accent undermined some of the effect, as did her quivering voice, but it got the job done. A section of the wall slid apart, a wall that Natalie had leaned against and paced next to many times, never suspecting that it concealed an exit.

Fiske, Nellie, Natalie, Reagan, and Ted, who was guided by Reagan's hand in his, all ran out into the bright sunlight. It was Ted who spoke first. "Something's wrong. They wouldn't just let us out like that because we captured one of their lackeys. There must be some reason, and I'm guessing it's not good.

"Ted's right," Nellie said. "The Vespers might be watching us, so we should always be on our guard."

"I think we should find a phone so we can contact Amy and Dan," Natalie suggested timidly.

"Sure thing, Nat," Nellie told the younger girl.

Natalie was so exhausted and relieved that she didn't even mind Nellie calling her 'Nat'.

With those words, the ragged group limped along, looking for a gas station or some sign of civilization so they could stop there and use the phone. Every one of them wished for food, but none of them had money on them.

A far-off wailing sound brought their gazes abruptly to the massive forest to their left.

"Should we go help?" Natalie asked uncertainly. "It could be a trap."

"I think a few of us can wait here while the others go see what's going on," Fiske told them. "I'm in no shape to be hiking through forests."

"I'll go," Ted decided. "I can probably hear better than all of you."

He walked up closer to the expanse of trees. Reagan, whose hand was still in his, stepped up as well to join him. Nellie, Fiske, and Natalie agreed to stay behind, but would sit down a little bit into the woods so they wouldn't be in plain sight.

"Hopefully, we'll be back in thirty minutes or so," Reagan told the group. "If not, come and find us."

On that cheerful note, the two set off into the forest.

* * *

~Dan~

Dan walked through JFK Airport, feeling even more energetic than he did on a sugar high, thankfully without the headache that followed. If he stopped to look in the mirror, he wouldn't recognize the serious, determined face that would look back at him.

When they boarded the plane, Dan got a seat next to Atticus, and they spent the flight discussing in hushed tones what he could do with he serum.

Atticus didn't look all that shocked when Dan had told him about taking the serum. There was only awe on his face, which Dan had felt grateful for after Amy's less-than-encouraging reaction.

In the seat in front of them, Jake and Amy sat in silence. **(A/N: Now it's Amy's thoughts.) **It wasn't an amiable silence, but one fraught with tension and worry.

When the plane landed and they finally got off, Amy was surprised to see Ian waiting for them in the baggage claim. She almost smiled when she saw him pacing impatiently, but she caught herself in time.

Seeing Ian only added to her list of complicated emotions, right up there with Dan drinking the serum and the world ending. Was it possible that she still liked Ian two years after the clue hunt and Korea, after she learned that Isabel Kabra was evil, after everything had changed?

_I have Evan now, _Amy reminded herself. Although he was sweet and kind and a huge help with their Vesper problems, Evan just didn't understand her sometimes. There was a whole part of her life that he would never really comprehend, even though he knew all about the Cahills.

_Then again, Jake doesn't really understand all that either, _Amy realized. He had become much nicer to her since when they first met, but he could be really infuriating at times.

As Amy stepped on the escalator, she shook her head to clear it of the distracting thoughts that had taken hold. It was exactly the kind of inner turmoil that made her wish she had a normal life sometimes. A life where her parents and Grace were still alive, where the clue hunt had never happened. A life she could never have.

Reaching the bottom of the escalator, she watched Ian and Jake heft the group's luggage off the carousel, both equally strong. Of course Dan probably was stronger than both of them, although she wasn't sure exactly what Dan's new capabilities would be. _I'd hate to be on the receiving end of his "ninja skills" now, _Amy thought.

Her small group followed Ian to the car, where Amy took the front passenger seat. Dan put their bags in the very back of the spacious car.

"So, what's our strategy?" Jake asked from the back seat.

Ian gripped the steering wheel tightly as he replied. "As you know, I talked to my mo—Isabel, whose 'charity' is visiting subduction zones, probably to do research for the Vespers' plan. I, for one, am at a loss for what to do."

Amy knew that was a huge thing to admit for Ian, not to mention a sign that he'd really changed for the better.

She spoke next. "I think Atticus should finish studying the Palimpsest, just in case any information can help us. I'll search the house for anything Sinead might have left behind—" her voice caught at the name of her former best friend/betrayer. "Dan, we're going to step up training for you. *sighs*. You might be our best chance at defeating the Vespers."

Dan let out a cheer, followed by Atticus's quieter one.

"You will get to learn martial arts," Amy promised. "But you need to study strategy with Ian too."

"Amy, you're no fun," Dan groaned.

She grinned to herself. Dan was thirteen, almost as old as she'd been during the clue hunt, yet he still acted much younger, although he could also choose to be mature when he had to. Amy needed to lighten up too. A leader couldn't always be serious.

The familiar driveway of their mansion was fast approaching, but the house looked empty from the outside with no lights visible from the outside and only Evan inside. He'd insisted on staying for the evening when he'd heard that Amy would be arriving.

When she walked into the house, she realized how much she'd really missed her home, and— "Oof, Saladin," Amy exclaimed as he leaped up at her.

She stroked his thick fur as she walked over to the refrigerator to get barramundi for him since he insisted on having it at least once a week,

"Dan, could you show Jake and Atticus to the guest rooms?"

Dan bounded up the stairs and motioned for the two half-brothers to follow. **(A/N: Now it's Dan's thoughts for a while) **He led them to two adjoining, spacious rooms.

"If you need anything, just ask," Dan called, his mouth stuffed with food.

He began to walk to his room, which was on the other side of the house.

Living in such a huge house felt unnatural to Dan after spending most of his life in apartments with barely adequate space. The Kabra estate had once and still did impress Dan, but now his mansion rivaled theirs.

He reached his room, and by habit grabbed the xBox controlled, but on second thought, he just flopped down in bed. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Eventually, he drifted off to sleep.

* * *

~Amy~

Amy sat in the kitchen eating a bagel and reading Michael Vey: Rise of the Elgen. It was a good book, once she got over the fact that there were giant, orange-reddish, electric, cannibalistic rats that an evil guy was going to use to take over Peru. **(A/N: Don't ask. I just like to randomly rant.) **She felt two hands resting on the back of her chair and turned around to see Evan had silently walked up.

"Amy, I've missed you so much," Evan started. "I can't believe the news about the world ending and everything else. Do you have any ideas?"

"I missed you too," Amy told him. "It's hard being away for so long, even though the house is practically empty, what with Fiske and Nellie being kidnapped. "

Saying that made her want to stop the Vespers even more, since they hadn't freed the hostages like they promised. Still, she knew that they wouldn't have hesitated to kill any one of them if she hadn't followed every instruction they gave.

"So... no plan?" Evan asked.

"Well, not really anything big. Atticus is going to translate the rest of the Palimpsest in case any of the information can help us. Obviously, we're going to step up training, especially for Dan, since he drank the serum."

Amy still couldn't hide her disapproval for Dan's choice as she said those words. Despite his immaturity, Dan meant everything to her, and putting him at risk to save the world was just so hard.

She continued. "I was also thinking of asking Jonah and Hamilton to research Archimedes's inventions to see if there's a way we can stop the doomsday machine."

"That's it? We're the only ones who can stop the Vespers and we have no real plan?" Evan looked uncharacteristically angry.

"Evan, listen," said Amy, her voice soft and pleading. "We're all trying. Can't you see that?"

"But it's not enough," he argued.

Finally, driven to the point of anger, Amy snapped at him. "Fine, if you feel that way, why don't you come up with one?"

She couldn't belive the way he was acting. Where was the dorky, sweet boy she thought she knew?

They both glared at each other for a long, hostile moment. Then Evan turned away and stomped outside to his car, got in, and drove off.

Amy wanted to call out to him, to apologize, but she realized that there was nothing she could do. She had dragged him too far into the fight with the Vespers that he couldn't deal with hit anymore.

Sighing heavily, Amy decided that it was all for the best. Besides, there was no way she could focus on her boy problems anymore, not unless she found a way to stop the Vespers.

She opened her book to where the bookmark and began reading about psychotic doctors and electric children once more.

* * *

~Sinead~

Sitting in Vesper headquarters in New York, Sinead felt like the terrible person the Cahills thought she was. Betraying Amy had been one of the hardest things she'd ever done. The bond of friendship between them was— or used to be truly genuine, unlike the other girls at schools she'd been to before, the girls that acted friendly just so they could get help with homework.

_Cut the sentimentality_, Sinead scolded herself. _It wont get you anywhere. _

A figure seen from the corner of her eye made her head turn suddenly.

"Evan?" Sinead gasped, suddenly running up to hug him. "What are you doing here? I thought you were still assigned to stay with the Cahills."

He grinned at her. "Change of plans. Amy and I had a fight, which I started so I would have a reason to leave. Any more time there and she or Ian or someone would have found out."

Sinead shuddered inwardly. The way he talked about the Cahills with such disregard meant either that he was good at hiding his feelings—or he never had any for them in the first place. Both ways indicated his commitment to the Vesper cause.

"Well, got to go talk to Vesper One," she said a little too brightly.

Sinead walked past several doors, stopping in front of the last one. She placed her index finger on a small stretch of wall, causing the door to slide open. Her heart was racing in fear at the prospect of meeting the one who was behind it all.

Behind a desk, fingers calmly tapping, sat a woman who looked remarkably like Sinead, except older and smiling somewhat evilly. A woman whom Sinead had not seen since over two years ago. It was her mother, Sabrina Starling.

"Mom!" Sinead burst out, then ran up to her for a hug. Sabrina stiffly hugged her daughter back as if unsure of what else, then pushed her away.

"Oh, sorry," Sinead realized that she'd just hugged Vesper One.

"No matter," Sabrina said. "I've missed you, Sinead."

There was little sincerity behind her words, and Sinead seemed to feel it. Sabrina's lack of genuineness really hurt. The sudden and unexplained absence of her mother after the clue hunt had torn a huge hole into the lives of the rest of the family, which was just Sinead, Ted, and Ned. She had no idea who her father was. All of that suffering and no sympathy?

"So, why did you call me here, Mother?"

"Just for old times' sake. And... I have a mission for you."

The words _mission for you_ sent a chill through Sinead's heart. A mission was never good.

"So... what kind of mission?"

"I want you to go back to the Cahills and apologize as if you mean it. No doubt the plain girl—" Sinead stiffened at the description of Amy. "—will trust you and welcome you back. Since Evan is no longer stationed there, we need someone on the inside."

Just as always, her mother was cunning and smart, but there was a huge oversight in the plan.

"Amy is way less trusting now, and she really hates me after what I did."

"Hmm... that could be a problem. I trust you more to do the job, but it looks like it would be more believable if Evan went back, even though he risks blowing his cover."

Sinead was relieved, although she didn't let it show. No matter how big an honor her mother thought a mission was, Sinead wanted no part in one.

"All right. I'll tell him right now."

"That's a good girl," Sabrina said, as if Sinead was a little kid. "Say hello to your brothers for me."

The words hit Sinead like a Tomas's fist. The Vespers had kidnapped Ted, maybe even making his condition worse. The reason she had even hated the Cahills at all in the first place was that they hadn't helped her brothers get better. _The Vespers won't help Ned and Ted either,_ Sinead realized.

She decided then and there that she wouldn't help the Vespers anymore. So what if the Cahills hated her? She still had her brother Ned, and hopefully Ted too, once the Vespers stopped holding him hostage.

She left her mother's office and found Evan typing rows and rows of what looked like nonsense to most, but her Ekat training told her that it was just a computer language, most likely JavaScript. He turned around and smiled when he saw her.

"Any news?" Evan asked.

"No, nothing much. Mom just wanted to say hi."

"Really?" Evan raised an eyebrow, but let it go, not saying anything more.

"Yeah. Hey, you made a mistake there," Sinead pointed to a line of text on the screen.

Evan looked closely for a moment, then deleted the line and rewrote it correctly. "Thanks," he told Sinead in surprise. "I never knew you learned JavaScript."

"Oh, I have a lot of secrets," Sinead told him, meaning every word. "They always come back to haunt me."

Evan looked puzzled. _If only he knew. _

Sinead felt a sudden temptation to tell him everything, let him take away the pain of betraying the Cahills and now the Vespers. But he wouldn't be on her side anymore after he found out about her double-(or was it triple) crossing.

At least she would always have Ned and Ted. She loved her brothers no matter what happened, and she knew they felt the same way. _Ugh... Curse you, sentimentality, _Sinead thought, but her heart didn't feel the same way.

* * *

**OMG, I am SO SORRY for not updating earlier. I was busy with school *sighs* and I just kept on making excuses to myself about not updating. Please tell me what you think of the story in a review. NO FLAMES PLEASE! **

**I'm going to have few random questions with each chapter, so you can answer them but also TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK OF THE STORY!**

**1) What is the strangest book you've ever read? Mine is Michael Vey: Rise of the Elgen (see random rant in Amy's POV part)  
**

**2) What's your favorite 39 Clues pairing? My favorite is Amian!**

**3) Do you have a fanfic that you want me to read and review and if you do, what is it called? **

**4) How many digits of Pi do you know? (this is the randomest one)**


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